SAN MATEO — A group of retired employees in the San Mateo Union High School District is upset over a recent decision that changes their health insurance plans and significantly increases their out-of-pocket costs.

The district’s decision creates “a real hardship” on early retirees, said Mike McCord, a former math teacher at Burlingame High.

Tonight, he and other early retirees plan to protest the changes before the district board. District leaders say they understand the retirees’ concerns but argue that the changes affecting those who took early retirement were a result of fiscal shortfalls.

“On the one hand, we appreciate the contributions of former employees,” incoming board President Dave Pine said. “But on the other hand, it’s costing the district $900,000 a year at a time of a budget crunch.”

The changes take effect Jan. 1 and involve separating about 70 early retirees from an insurance pool of about 800 active employees, he said.

Early retirees will continue to receive $250 a month toward buying insurance offered through the district, Pine said. However, being apart from the larger pool means they will face increased premiums, he said.

For example, early retirees will see one Blue Cross policy for a single-coverage plan go from $448 a month to $1,602 a month, Pine said. The same coverage at Kaiser will cost $704 — up from $482.

The changes “will cost retirees on fixed incomes as much as a 257 percent increase in health care premiums for lesser plans with higher deductibles,” McCord and other early retirees said in a statement.

Many current teachers and other active employees who are looking to retire early are troubled “when they see what their premiums will cost,” McCord added. He and others also argued that the district did not make its decision in the open, nor did it provide proper notice.

“We want to protest the whole manner of how this decision was handled,” he said. “We just don’t feel (the district) acted in good faith.”

The district has been discussing insurance changes for early retirees the past few years, Pine said. However, trustee Linda Lees Dwyer acknowledged that the timing of the changes “seems rather tight.”

“That is a concern,” she acknowledged.

However, the district is pursuing measures to ease the burden on the early retirees, Pine said. For instance, district leaders will consider a request from the teachers’ union to increase the former employees’ $250 monthly payment.

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